Monday, March 24, 2014

Europe's energy policy saves it from Putin's natural gas extortion

"If the goal is to reduce demand for Russian natural gas, the most
cost-effective way is to do much more of what Germany and, to a lesser
extent, the rest of the EU is already doing: promote conservation and
mass transit and further subsidize the cost of installing solar and wind
energy. That might not sound as hard-nosed as drilling everywhere,
polluting groundwater and exposing people to the dangers of transporting
a highly explosive fuel, but it is the solution that makes the most
economic sense.
The EU model also has the advantage of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and slowing global warming. This is an issue that the tough
talkers seem to go out of their way to ignore, but ignoring it will not
make global warming go away.
In 30 years, when hundreds of millions of people are suffering from
the damage caused by global warming, the tough talkers may want to be
able to tell their children and grandchildren about the time they stood
up to Putin with their drill-everywhere strategy. The rest of us might
prefer to be able to tell future generations about what we did to ensure
that we passed along a habitable planet. "

In the US the solution is just drill more oil and natural gas. Europe has figured out that in both the short and long terms this is a dumb idea. Oil and gas are finite. Wind and solar are infinite.